Starting from millions of family trees, Geneanet, the European leader in online genealogy, through its platform dedicated to celebrities Geneastar, has conducted an unprecedented analysis to identify celebrities with ancestors in a specific territory. Based on the data at their disposal, the Geneastar platform has identified the celebrities who have the most known ancestors in the department.
In first place, with 584 ancestors in the department, we find unsurprisingly Colette Besson, the Olympic champion from Mexico who was born in Saint-Georges-de-Didonne and passed away in 2005 in Angoulins. Perhaps more surprising are the 226 ancestors originating from the department of the singer Christine and the Queens, whose roots are mainly around La Rochelle. Among the personalities with the most ancestors in the department, we find the equestrian Nicolas Astier, gold and silver medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and Michel Crepeau, former minister and mayor of La Rochelle.
Among the slightly more surprising names, we find Coluche, whose grandfather was from Saint-Christophe and who got married in Marennes with his grandmother. We can also mention Jacques Villeret, who has around fifty ancestors in the department, including from Saint-Jean-d’Angely, or Pascal Obispo, whose great-great-grandmother was born in Mortagne-sur-Gironde, the former minister who has roots in Haute-Saintonge on the maternal side, just like Michel Rocard but on the paternal side. Finally, the actress Barbara Schulz, despite strong origins in the east of France, has roots in Oléron and Royan, and the new French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama has a few dozen ancestors in the department between Saint-Jean-d’Angely and Rochefort.
